Fogo De Chao

[viscousmemories]

I had dinner last week at this Brazilian Churrascaria in Dallas called Fogo De Chao. Man, that place is pretty amazing. The only flaw was the feeling that I was going to projectile vomit all the way home after eating far more than a person should eat in one sitting.

There's only one thing on the menu: Meat.

You start with a "salad bar", which actually has not only salad fixin's, but also fresh cheeses, proscuitto, asparagus, smoked salmon, olives, and other things. While you're chowing on that they bring out various delicous bread items and fried bananas. Then comes the meat. Each person gets a little circle of cardboard that's red on one side and green on the other. When you want meat, you flip it to green and these guys that are running around with meat stop at your table and slice some off for you. They have over 15 different varieties, of which I tried the sirloin, pork ribs, bacon-wrapped filet mignon, beef ribs, and parmesan encrusted pork loin. There was perhaps more, but I don't remember.

For desert I of course had a decaf cappuccino and, um, creme brulee.

So yeah. Note to self: Take the waiter's advice next time and "go easy on the salad bar". Or the meat. Or desert.

[Dingfod]

Sounds just like Rodizio Grill in Salt Lake City. Rodizio had the decor, the waitstaff dressed in gaucho costume, and the gigantico grill right out front with hundreds of pounds of meat being seared on it visible as you enter the dining area.

They've got a lame imitation of the same here in Tulsa called Gaucho, to which I will not be returning. Gaucho does all the cooking behind closed doors and only had a six foot salad bar like they have at Pizza Rut with extremely limited selections and only two or three kinds of meat, meat marinated in something very funky. It nauseated me, which is difficult to do with meat.


Warren

[pescifish]

I went to one of those in Las Vegas: Samba in the Mirage.

They didn't have a salad bar, but the pre-meat salad, bread and other stuff were too amazing to pass up. The waiter explained about the wooden spool for each person at the table: green side up means "Bring it On!" and red side was supposed to mean "Uncle!" But my experience was that with the red side up, they still came by with 2.5 foot skewers of every kind of meat imaginable and asked if I wanted some. I suppose with the green side up, they just don't ask.

Luckily, I cleared it with the waiter whether it was ok to take leftovers home and he said the $35 entitled me to all 12 of the different types of meats and to feel free to take what I couldn't eat home. The other thing I recall about that dinner was that the restaurant had one of the better Long Island Iced Teas that I had in Las Vegas (generally rather hideous, in my experience) and I had more than one. I had to wait for some of that to wear off before continuing my evening.

Still, it cracked me the hell up! As the good friend of mine who made the recommendation said "It's the place for you, Fish: a parade of nice young men bringing massive hunks of meat at your beck and call." Truly, what more could I want?!

[Penni]

I always see that place advertised in the magazines on airplanes!

[livius drusus]

There's one a mile or so from my office, but I'm not really into the mountain of meat concept.